Author Archives: Iiiireader

“The Semester of Our Discontent” is the debut mystery in a new series set in academia. It was so well-written, I went looking for more books by this author and that is when I realized it must be her first one. I will certainly be looking for new books in this series in the future.

Lila Maclean is the new literature professor at Stonedale, a private university in lush Colorado surroundings. It is also her first job and she is trying to find her way and fit into the “political” hierarchy of the teaching staff. There are many who are friendly and there are a select few who simply don’t like Lila although they know little to nothing about her.

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This is a fun and fairly quick read of mystery short stories by some of my favorite authors, including the late Charlotte MacLeod. There are stories by Sharyn McCrumb, Issac Asimov, Aaron Elkins and Mary Higgins Clark among others.

The stories are quite fun and run the gamut of whodunnit to the planning of a murder or two. I found that I could read each story during my lunch break, so the book provided a great break read for more than a week.

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“Christmas Stalkings” is a reprint of a collection of Christmas mysteries which was first published in 1991. The authors were some of my favorites then and still remain so today, even though a few of them have since passed away. I had not read these before (back when, I preferred full length mysteries to short stories) but it is possible that others may have read it when it was published previously.

The 12 stories are a wide variety of mysteries collected from various authors, with the sleuths solving everything from whodunnit to the background of a mystery guest. My favorite story was by the late Elizabeth Peters. I’ve been a huge fan of hers for many decades under all of her various pseudonyms. That this story featured herself in the story made it all the more humorous.

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I enjoy reading both mysteries and regency historical novels, so in Catherine Lloyd’s Kurland St. Mary Mystery series, I get both in a single book. This is the fourth book in the series and I recommend reading them in order. While they can be read stand-alone, I think that the character development and the events which build to this story are important to read first.

The rector’s daughter, Lucy Harrington and the local magistrate, (Major) Sir Robert Kurland are engaged and are busy with planning a London wedding that neither of them really want.

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I am a huge mystery buff and I really enjoy mysteries which deal with the art world. That being said, “White Lead” was a book that I found difficult to follow and equally difficult to finish.

The plot line is rather convoluted but follows an art conservationist as she runs from dangerous situation to even more dangerous situation. The problem was that I never fully understood why she was involved, how she got away time and time again and, in the end, I really did not understand the ending (which left too many open plot lines – perhaps thinking there would be more in this series?)

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This is a mystery series that I have enjoyed and have read the first the second book in the series. I jumped ahead to book 4 and was able to pick up the action easily.

In this story our sleuth, Angie, is beginning to think about staying in Haven Harbor beyond the six months she has allotted herself. As she is four months into the period, she will need to figure out things pretty soon. She has two men that she might become interested in and she has a job to do that she is enjoying. The personal plot line of this series moves slowly but that is in line with the concept of four books covering a period of four months.

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“The Body in the Landscape” is the fifth book in a mystery series about Cherry Tucker. This is the first book in this series that I have read. I often read books out of order in a series to see if a book can stand alone or if it needs to be read in order. For me, there were enough confusing elements in the story – from start to finish, that I must recommend that the series be read in order.

I enjoyed the book, which was quite long. It seemed much longer than the page count on the product page – maybe a third again as long based on the line count on the Kindle version.

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